6 BEE-KEEPING FOR PROFIT 
the queen bee, and her position in the bee com- 
munity. Each hive is, as it were, a republic 
of female workers, who serve with slavish 
devotion one of their number set apart from 
birth for the position of supreme head of the 
community. Like their sex generally through- 
out Nature, they give of their best where it is 
most needed. They know by their instinct 
that if the queen is fed with rich food her 
egg-laying capacity is stimulated, and, on the 
contrary, when the honey-flow is finished, that 
the supply of such food must be checked, with 
a consequent reduction in the number of eggs 
laid. They know that the greater the popula- 
tion of the hive the greater the drain on their 
honey store. 
Generally speaking the life of a queen bee 
extends from two to five years, at which age 
she is generally exhausted, or is deposed by 
the community in favour of a younger queen. 
The egg from which a queen bee develops 
is at the first precisely similar to that which 
produces a worker, and both are fertile. It 
all depends upon the kind of cell in which 
the egg is deposited by the queen whether a 
mere worker or a royal offspring ensues. 
The queen cells are acorn shaped, and larger in 
size than the others and are generally placed on 
